Vehicle systems can transport cargo between distant locations by traveling from vehicle yard to vehicle yard along the way. For example, rail vehicles may be arranged in a train to transport rail cars carrying cargo from one rail yard to another. At one or more stops at the rail yards, rail cars and cargo may be removed from the trains and/or added to the trains. Eventually, the cargo bound for a scheduled destination reaches the destination by moving from yard to yard, although not on the same train. The cargo and/or rail car carrying the cargo may switch from train to train at different rail yards.
Currently, a rail yard takes apart incoming trains and combines rail cars and locomotives in the yard with the purpose of getting the cargo carried by the rail cars only to the next rail yard. That is, cargo may be handled by a rail yard simply by getting the cargo and/or rail car carrying the cargo on the next available train that is headed in the general direction of the destination of the cargo, with little thought or planning given to how the next rail yard will be forced to handle the cargo when the train is received in the next rail yard.
Significant inefficiencies result from this handling of cargo. For example, when the train is received in the next rail yard, the cargo and/or rail car carrying the cargo may be located in an inconvenient location for unloading the cargo and/or moving the rail car to another outbound train. As another example, several rail cars in the same train may be in locations along the length of the train that require significant time and effort to shuffle the cars through the rail yard for being included in another train that departs the rail yard.